When asking my friends "how should one live", their responses were pretty common yet unique. One friend explained in great depth that one should live their lives "in pursuit of not only their own happiness but the happiness of those they love". I can agree with this because I feel that I do live my life to make my loved ones happy. She also said that one should "live their life actively, not passively, taking full advantage of every breath". People should be thankful for life and that they are living to see another day; however, one should not live each day worrying about the "what ifs" of the next day.
Other friends simply gave short, to the point answers about how one should live. One friend replied, "happily, successful and in love" while another friend replied, "freely with goals, open to changes but taking care of business". The first response from a female, while the second response is from a male. Love is something most people seek out in life. Does finding love equal success? If not, what does? What defines happiness for people?
Everyone's response to "How should one live?" will be different. Each person has a different outlook on life and what their views of success, happiness and goals entails.
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This is more or less directed to the beginning of your second paragraph regarding love. Martha Nussbaum states, "just that love of a person is adequate reason to include that person." Love is very important in the search for guidelines to living. Nussbaum also says,"being truley human a life in which we can use all our basic human equipment in a way that's not just minimal but flourishing."
If we practiced using all of our abilities to further ourselves as well as loving others, it should then answer our question of, "how should one live"?
What defines happiness for people? Speaking from the perspective of Nussbaum; happiness should come from the satisfaction of acting out our capabilities of our human equipment.
This is directed toward your quote about how “one should live their lives ‘in pursuit of…the happiness of those they love.’ ” I believe you have touched on the part of Martha Nussbaum’s interview in which she discusses a person’s motivation for entering into a relationship. Nussbaum talks about how the social contract theory assumes that the reason for entering relationships is due to mutual advantage; she disagrees, stating that “people cooperate for love of one another, out of compassion, out of respect for human dignity in one another, but also just simply out of love for humanity” (17).
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